WORKING MEN

As Part 2 of a season-long series celebrating the organization’s 20th anniversary, Griffiti caught up with a hat trick of former Griffins now making their marks in other professions.

Stories by Mark Newman


BRAD FERENCE: QUENCHING THE COMPETITIVE FIRES

When Brad Ference saw his career coming to an end in Grand Rapids during the 2007-08 season, he began to think about what was next.

He wasn’t yet 29 years old, but a bad wrist injury and a couple of years in the American Hockey League had left him wondering whether his NHL career was over after 250 games with the Florida Panthers, Phoenix Coyotes and Calgary Flames.

Ference had suffered a radiocarpal dislocation of his wrist when David Ling hit him from behind and sent him crashing into the boards during a game in Toronto. “The doctor compared the damage to the ligaments to an injury suffered in a car crash,” he said. “If the bone had broken, I’d probably have been better off.”

He thought about a career in commercial real estate. He considered a career in the oil and gas industry, which was thriving at the time in Calgary. He thought about going back to school. “Hockey had been my whole life, so it was a big decision.”

Ultimately, he found the idea of becoming a city firefighter in Calgary the most appealing. “My dad was a city employee in the planning department for many years,” he said. “Being a firefighter is a good stable job and it’s as close to a hockey team as you can get.”

Ference was attracted to the camaraderie and sense of teamwork that exists in a fire hall, not to mention the physical demands of the profession. “Plus it offers a pretty good schedule for the family – two 10-hour days, two 14-hour nights and then four days off,” he said.

He went through 16 weeks of fire academy training, undergoing various degrees of systematic training, from fire ground tactics to aerial pumping. He was one of a couple thousand people applying for 20 positions, but he made the cut.

Ference started in the Calgary Fire Department in January 2009. He is one of 1,500 firefighters who staff the city’s 43 fire halls.

“What I enjoy is that every call is different,” he said. “You never go on the same call twice. Every time the alarm rings, we’re on the truck going somewhere to something interesting. It’s usually people’s worst day, but that’s what we’re trained for.”

He is also a member of the department’s water rescue team. The Bow River is a popular destination in Calgary plus there are a number of man-made lakes in the area, so there are any number of potential opportunities for Ference to put his training into action.

“It’s a highly sought after position, but I’ve always been a good swimmer,” he said. “I’ve been a boat guy since I was a kid. My family went to the lake in the summer and I bought a lake house in British Columbia a few years ago.”

During the summer, Ference patrols the river and talks to people about water safety. River rescues are almost a daily occurrence during the warmer months, and occasionally a driver will put their car through the ice during Calgary’s freezing winters.

Ference was present at one of the biggest fires in Calgary in the past 10 years – a five-story condo building covering an entire city block. “I was inside the fire, looking in the attic when we had to pull out,” he recalled. “The size and magnitude of the fire was a once-in-a-lifetime event. It was a crazy call.”

Working in potentially dangerous situations, Ference’s hockey background comes into play. “When the adrenaline runs high, you have to stay calm and be instructive while staying safe,” he said. “If we end up hurting ourselves, we’re no good to the people we’re there to help.”

Like a hockey team, firefighters are a close-knit bunch. “We’ve had the same crew for a full three years at my fire hall,” he said. “We know each other’s families. We have Christmas dinners together. We’ve got to have each other’s backs in those situations.”

Their work doesn’t go unnoticed. “When policemen show up, they’re the bad guy, but when you call the fire department, everybody is happy to see you,” Ference said. “It’s gratifying when little kids come by the fire hall to thank the crew for saving their home or an elderly woman drops off a cake or coffee in appreciation for a smoke detector.”

While there are long hours, the schedule allows him the freedom to spend more time with his family. Ference and his wife, Kristin, have two children: Morgan, 6, and Easton, 3. “Not many dads have the time to pick up their kids from school and take them to their activities,” he said while making a backyard rink on a Saturday afternoon.

Easton is already on skates, which pleases Ference, who still skates at least once a week himself. He is a member of the Calgary Fire Department’s ice hockey team that won the gold medal at the World Police and Fire Games in Fairfax, Virginia, this past July, beating Moscow Fire by a 5-4 score in the Gold Medal Final.

The World Police and Fire Games is a biennial athletic event, open to active and retired law enforcement and fire service personnel throughout the world. The Games attract approximately 10,000 entrants, slightly fewer than the Summer Olympic Games.

“Our team is pretty good,” Ference said. “We have about a dozen ex-pro players, including Chris Herperger, who played 169 NHL games, and Todd Ford, our goalie, who was a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs. All of our defensemen played at least major junior hockey.”

Ference said his team won silver and bronze at previous Games in Vancouver and New York City. “The next Games will be in Montreal, Quebec, in 2017 and I will probably go to that one, but probably not the 2019 Games in China,” he said.

He also participates in an intrasquad league, which helps satisfy his competitive urge. “I love my work; it’s a great job, so getting to play hockey with the guys is a nice bonus.”

KEVYN ADAMS: DEVELOPING ELITE HOCKEY PLAYERS

Kevyn Adams has fond memories of the 1996-97 season. Not only was it his first as a professional after four years at Miami University, but it was also the inaugural season of the Grand Rapids Griffins.

“Everything was a big deal,” Adams recalled. “I remember our first win in Indianapolis, the first game in the arena, playing in front of soldout crowds every night. It was fun playing with a group of good guys in a great league.”

Adams signed with the Griffins after failing to come to contract terms with the Boston Bruins, who had chosen him in the first round (25th overall) of the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. “I needed some place to play and, as a 21-year-old kid out of college, I learned a lot in a short time,” he said. “I was fortunate to have some success on the ice, which helped my career moving forward.”

He singled out Todd and Jeff Nelson, Brian Dobbin and Michel Picard as some of the veterans who helped him make the transition to the pro lifestyle. It was a good lesson for Adams, who would spend 10 seasons in the NHL, including 2005-06 when he was a member of the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes.

“I had an amazing run of wonderful teams and teammates,” said Adams, who also played for Toronto, Columbus, Florida and Chicago. “I had a lot of great experiences over the years, and winning the Stanley Cup is at the top of the list. The journey was great.”

Once he was established in the NHL, Adams did his best to be a good elder statesman, helping younger players make the adjustment to the pros as the Griffins once did for him.

“There were guys I tried to take under my wing, like Eric Staal and Andrew Ladd in Carolina or Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews in Chicago,” he said. “They didn’t need my help on the ice – they were world class players from the get-go – but I tried to show them how to be a pro and how to approach the game. I took on that role late in my career and I really enjoyed it.”

Knee injuries ended Adams’ playing career, but a chance meeting with Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff at a golf tournament in 2009 led to his becoming the player development coach for the NHL team. Two years later, he became an assistant coach under Ruff.

“It seemed like a natural progression from the role I had assumed late in my career,” he said. “Player development was something I took very seriously. I read a lot of books and even went back to school to get my MBA. I was fascinated by the process of player development and what it takes to get better.

“I loved coaching, too. I loved the strategic, behind-the-scenes work and all the things you did to prepare, as well as the day-to-day interaction with the players. I really enjoyed my two years behind the bench.”

After the Sabres parted ways with Ruff, Adams lost his job following the 2012-13 season. But it opened a new opportunity as he joined the management team of the new HarborCenter in downtown Buffalo, the dream project of Terry and Kim Pegula, owners of the Sabres and Buffalo Bills, who envisioned creating a world-class destination for aspiring hockey players from western New York and southern Ontario.

“I was close to taking a job with another NHL team when I sat down for coffee with Terry and Kim to talk about their vision of doing something special in the hockey world,” Adams said. “Their big vision lined up with everything I am passionate about from the development side.”

As vice president and director of the complex’s Academy of Hockey, Adams oversees a full-time staff of seven development coaches who run a slate of rigorous on-ice training programs designed to help the dedicated hockey player reach their highest potential.

Taking a holistic approach, the Academy strives for a 360-degree education experience that emphasizes skill progression, innovation and personalized contact befitting a close coach-to-player ratio that allows for consistent communication and correction.

The Academy has programs for all ages and abilities, from youngsters who are 4, 5 or 6 years old up to NHL players looking to push their skills to the next level. “We’re trying to provide opportunities for young players who want to be taught the right way,” he said. “We’re targeting the serious hockey players who want to get better.”

HarborCenter, which is connected to First Niagara Center (the home of the Buffalo Sabres), includes two NHL rinks, a full-service Marriott Hotel and a Tim Hortons restaurant. “It’s a phenomenal facility in a unique market,” Adams said. “We’re changing the mindset in terms of how you need to look at the whole picture when it comes to developing a hockey player.”

In two short years, Adams said the Academy has impacted nearly 2,000 players. “I really love what I’m doing,” he said. “But what trumps everything for me is that I’m able to be with my family every day. I get to coach my son’s hockey team or my daughter’s soccer team or watch my other daughter’s theater performances.”

Adams and his wife, Stacey, have three kids. Emerson, 14, is a high school freshman. Paulina will soon turn 11 and Jackson, who plays hockey on the same team as the son of former Griffins captain Matt Ellis, is 8.

“What’s fun for me is not only do I coach his youth team, but he also gets to spend a lot of time with me at the Academy. I’ll pick him up from school and he’ll do his homework and then do the programs here. The opportunity to spend time with him is priceless.”

Adams is working on developing partnerships with area youth hockey programs as well as with players and coaches from Europe. “We would like to bring players and coaches here in the summer and then reciprocate by sending players and coaches to them.”

Outreach is an important component of the goals of the Academy, and Adams sees plenty of opportunities to make the HarborCenter a premier destination for players and coaches alike. “The chance to do something special and lasting in my hometown would obviously be very rewarding.”

DAVE VAN DRUNEN: ICE IN HIS VEINS

During his 14-year pro career, Dave Van Drunen came to the rescue more than once. He was a solid, steady defenseman whose play made him a valuable addition. He played five seasons in Grand Rapids (1999-2004), plus four more with the Muskegon Fury.

So it seems appropriate that the good-natured defender became a paramedic after he retired from hockey following the 2010-11 season. “I probably would have toughed it out for a couple more years, but the body just didn’t cooperate,” he said.

Van Drunen endured a particularly tough final season. He had his nose and jaw broken during the exhibition season when he was sucker punched in a brawl. It took 18 screws and four plates to repair the damages.

“I came back two months later and played for about a month before I stopped a slapshot similar to those I had blocked a couple of million times in my career,” he said. “Somehow it hit a funny spot and split my kneecap in two.”

The knee never healed properly. “When they pulled out the screws and I started skating, the knee swelled up really bad,” he said. “I had an MRI instead of an X-ray and my knee looked like Pac-Man, so I needed a second surgery and my knee never quite healed like it should have.”

Van Drunen started attending fire school in Odessa, Texas, where he had been captain of the Jackalopes in the Central Hockey League his last three seasons. He attended Odessa College and took six months of basic EMT training, then spent 18 months in the paramedic program.

When his schooling was finished, he returned to Michigan and landed a job with Rockford Ambulance.

“Getting to help people gives you a good feeling,” Van Drunen said. “Knowing that you can go out and do some good for people makes every hour of the long days worth it.”

Working 24-hour shifts and confronting high-pressure situations in the process requires the stamina and mental fortitude that allowed Van Drunen to excel on the ice.

“Obviously the stakes are a lot different, but your body reacts the same way,” he said. “You get that rush of adrenaline, but you have to try to stay calm and in the moment and do what you have to do, then there’s a big sigh of relief when it’s over and you feel exhausted.”

Like changing on the fly in a hockey game, Van Drunen quickly became accustomed to the ups and downs of the work. “Whether it’s two in the morning or two in the afternoon, you go when the calls come,” he said.

“If you’re not busy, you’re either sitting in the ambulance or you’re back at one of the satellite stations trying to catch some sleep. When you’re running 24 hours straight and you get some high stress calls, it can mentally wear on you.”

The life of a paramedic requires responding to everything from toenail fungus to really bad car accidents, according to Van Drunen. “The worst is seeing little kids in bad car accidents. There’s a lot of stuff that you see that you can’t unsee.”

It’s the calls with happy outcomes that make the drudgery worth it. “One of my favorite calls involved a gentleman who actually collapsed in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and died,” he said. “His wife was with us and within a couple of minutes, we were were able to shock him and bring him back.”

Once Van Drunen was assigned to follow a SWAT team making an entrance into a home. “We sat around the corner, waiting in case someone got hurt or shot,” he said. “We never got the call, but that was pretty cool.”

But the sobering calls are the ones that he thinks about, whether it’s fishing a body out of the river or responding to a fatality involving a six-month-old child who had died after falling off a couch while sleeping.

“Usually fatalities involve an older person in bed who passed away in their sleep, but in this instance I walked into the room where this was this little body that was such a blue color, I thought it was a doll,” he said. “Then it hits you, ‘Oh no, that’s not right! To see the parents in their shock and disbelief, it’s pretty tough to deal with.”

Of course, there are moments of levity. Van Drunen jokes that one of his best saves involved a snapper turtle trying to cross a country road. “We pulled the ambulance over and turned on our lights,” he recalled. “We helped it across the road by nudging it.”

All in all, Van Drunen said the work of a paramedic is rather fulfilling. “If you don’t get a good feeling from being able to go out and do something for somebody else that needs help, you don’t want to be a paramedic,” he said.

The schedule is not exactly the best for raising a family. Van Drunen and his wife, Jill, have two children: Connor, 11, and Brooke, 8, so when his old pal and teammate Travis Richards called with an offer to become the rink operations manager of the Southside Ice Arena in Byron Center, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

“A bad day at the rink is still a good day,” he said. “I love being at the rink. I’ve always felt that way.”

Van Drunen is still a licensed paramedic and has given thought about working both jobs, but he’s been too busy at the rink to get serious about it. “I had never paid much attention to what it takes to maintain ice, but you just don’t freeze it. A lot goes into it,” he said.

As Part 2 of a season-long series celebrating the organization’s 20th anniversary, Griffiti caught up with a hat trick of former Griffins now making their marks in other professions.

Stories by Mark Newman


BRAD FERENCE: QUENCHING THE COMPETITIVE FIRES

When Brad Ference saw his career coming to an end in Grand Rapids during the 2007-08 season, he began to think about what was next.

He wasn’t yet 29 years old, but a bad wrist injury and a couple of years in the American Hockey League had left him wondering whether his NHL career was over after 250 games with the Florida Panthers, Phoenix Coyotes and Calgary Flames.

Ference had suffered a radiocarpal dislocation of his wrist when David Ling hit him from behind and sent him crashing into the boards during a game in Toronto. “The doctor compared the damage to the ligaments to an injury suffered in a car crash,” he said. “If the bone had broken, I’d probably have been better off.”

He thought about a career in commercial real estate. He considered a career in the oil and gas industry, which was thriving at the time in Calgary. He thought about going back to school. “Hockey had been my whole life, so it was a big decision.”

Ultimately, he found the idea of becoming a city firefighter in Calgary the most appealing. “My dad was a city employee in the planning department for many years,” he said. “Being a firefighter is a good stable job and it’s as close to a hockey team as you can get.”

Ference was attracted to the camaraderie and sense of teamwork that exists in a fire hall, not to mention the physical demands of the profession. “Plus it offers a pretty good schedule for the family – two 10-hour days, two 14-hour nights and then four days off,” he said.

He went through 16 weeks of fire academy training, undergoing various degrees of systematic training, from fire ground tactics to aerial pumping. He was one of a couple thousand people applying for 20 positions, but he made the cut.

Ference started in the Calgary Fire Department in January 2009. He is one of 1,500 firefighters who staff the city’s 43 fire halls.

“What I enjoy is that every call is different,” he said. “You never go on the same call twice. Every time the alarm rings, we’re on the truck going somewhere to something interesting. It’s usually people’s worst day, but that’s what we’re trained for.”

He is also a member of the department’s water rescue team. The Bow River is a popular destination in Calgary plus there are a number of man-made lakes in the area, so there are any number of potential opportunities for Ference to put his training into action.

“It’s a highly sought after position, but I’ve always been a good swimmer,” he said. “I’ve been a boat guy since I was a kid. My family went to the lake in the summer and I bought a lake house in British Columbia a few years ago.”

During the summer, Ference patrols the river and talks to people about water safety. River rescues are almost a daily occurrence during the warmer months, and occasionally a driver will put their car through the ice during Calgary’s freezing winters.

Ference was present at one of the biggest fires in Calgary in the past 10 years – a five-story condo building covering an entire city block. “I was inside the fire, looking in the attic when we had to pull out,” he recalled. “The size and magnitude of the fire was a once-in-a-lifetime event. It was a crazy call.”

Working in potentially dangerous situations, Ference’s hockey background comes into play. “When the adrenaline runs high, you have to stay calm and be instructive while staying safe,” he said. “If we end up hurting ourselves, we’re no good to the people we’re there to help.”

Like a hockey team, firefighters are a close-knit bunch. “We’ve had the same crew for a full three years at my fire hall,” he said. “We know each other’s families. We have Christmas dinners together. We’ve got to have each other’s backs in those situations.”

Their work doesn’t go unnoticed. “When policemen show up, they’re the bad guy, but when you call the fire department, everybody is happy to see you,” Ference said. “It’s gratifying when little kids come by the fire hall to thank the crew for saving their home or an elderly woman drops off a cake or coffee in appreciation for a smoke detector.”

While there are long hours, the schedule allows him the freedom to spend more time with his family. Ference and his wife, Kristin, have two children: Morgan, 6, and Easton, 3. “Not many dads have the time to pick up their kids from school and take them to their activities,” he said while making a backyard rink on a Saturday afternoon.

Easton is already on skates, which pleases Ference, who still skates at least once a week himself. He is a member of the Calgary Fire Department’s ice hockey team that won the gold medal at the World Police and Fire Games in Fairfax, Virginia, this past July, beating Moscow Fire by a 5-4 score in the Gold Medal Final.

The World Police and Fire Games is a biennial athletic event, open to active and retired law enforcement and fire service personnel throughout the world. The Games attract approximately 10,000 entrants, slightly fewer than the Summer Olympic Games.

“Our team is pretty good,” Ference said. “We have about a dozen ex-pro players, including Chris Herperger, who played 169 NHL games, and Todd Ford, our goalie, who was a third-round draft pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs. All of our defensemen played at least major junior hockey.”

Ference said his team won silver and bronze at previous Games in Vancouver and New York City. “The next Games will be in Montreal, Quebec, in 2017 and I will probably go to that one, but probably not the 2019 Games in China,” he said.

He also participates in an intrasquad league, which helps satisfy his competitive urge. “I love my work; it’s a great job, so getting to play hockey with the guys is a nice bonus.”

KEVYN ADAMS: DEVELOPING ELITE HOCKEY PLAYERS

Kevyn Adams has fond memories of the 1996-97 season. Not only was it his first as a professional after four years at Miami University, but it was also the inaugural season of the Grand Rapids Griffins.

“Everything was a big deal,” Adams recalled. “I remember our first win in Indianapolis, the first game in the arena, playing in front of soldout crowds every night. It was fun playing with a group of good guys in a great league.”

Adams signed with the Griffins after failing to come to contract terms with the Boston Bruins, who had chosen him in the first round (25th overall) of the 1993 NHL Entry Draft. “I needed some place to play and, as a 21-year-old kid out of college, I learned a lot in a short time,” he said. “I was fortunate to have some success on the ice, which helped my career moving forward.”

He singled out Todd and Jeff Nelson, Brian Dobbin and Michel Picard as some of the veterans who helped him make the transition to the pro lifestyle. It was a good lesson for Adams, who would spend 10 seasons in the NHL, including 2005-06 when he was a member of the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes.

“I had an amazing run of wonderful teams and teammates,” said Adams, who also played for Toronto, Columbus, Florida and Chicago. “I had a lot of great experiences over the years, and winning the Stanley Cup is at the top of the list. The journey was great.”

Once he was established in the NHL, Adams did his best to be a good elder statesman, helping younger players make the adjustment to the pros as the Griffins once did for him.

“There were guys I tried to take under my wing, like Eric Staal and Andrew Ladd in Carolina or Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews in Chicago,” he said. “They didn’t need my help on the ice – they were world class players from the get-go – but I tried to show them how to be a pro and how to approach the game. I took on that role late in my career and I really enjoyed it.”

Knee injuries ended Adams’ playing career, but a chance meeting with Buffalo Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff at a golf tournament in 2009 led to his becoming the player development coach for the NHL team. Two years later, he became an assistant coach under Ruff.

“It seemed like a natural progression from the role I had assumed late in my career,” he said. “Player development was something I took very seriously. I read a lot of books and even went back to school to get my MBA. I was fascinated by the process of player development and what it takes to get better.

“I loved coaching, too. I loved the strategic, behind-the-scenes work and all the things you did to prepare, as well as the day-to-day interaction with the players. I really enjoyed my two years behind the bench.”

After the Sabres parted ways with Ruff, Adams lost his job following the 2012-13 season. But it opened a new opportunity as he joined the management team of the new HarborCenter in downtown Buffalo, the dream project of Terry and Kim Pegula, owners of the Sabres and Buffalo Bills, who envisioned creating a world-class destination for aspiring hockey players from western New York and southern Ontario.

“I was close to taking a job with another NHL team when I sat down for coffee with Terry and Kim to talk about their vision of doing something special in the hockey world,” Adams said. “Their big vision lined up with everything I am passionate about from the development side.”

As vice president and director of the complex’s Academy of Hockey, Adams oversees a full-time staff of seven development coaches who run a slate of rigorous on-ice training programs designed to help the dedicated hockey player reach their highest potential.

Taking a holistic approach, the Academy strives for a 360-degree education experience that emphasizes skill progression, innovation and personalized contact befitting a close coach-to-player ratio that allows for consistent communication and correction.

The Academy has programs for all ages and abilities, from youngsters who are 4, 5 or 6 years old up to NHL players looking to push their skills to the next level. “We’re trying to provide opportunities for young players who want to be taught the right way,” he said. “We’re targeting the serious hockey players who want to get better.”

HarborCenter, which is connected to First Niagara Center (the home of the Buffalo Sabres), includes two NHL rinks, a full-service Marriott Hotel and a Tim Hortons restaurant. “It’s a phenomenal facility in a unique market,” Adams said. “We’re changing the mindset in terms of how you need to look at the whole picture when it comes to developing a hockey player.”

In two short years, Adams said the Academy has impacted nearly 2,000 players. “I really love what I’m doing,” he said. “But what trumps everything for me is that I’m able to be with my family every day. I get to coach my son’s hockey team or my daughter’s soccer team or watch my other daughter’s theater performances.”

Adams and his wife, Stacey, have three kids. Emerson, 14, is a high school freshman. Paulina will soon turn 11 and Jackson, who plays hockey on the same team as the son of former Griffins captain Matt Ellis, is 8.

“What’s fun for me is not only do I coach his youth team, but he also gets to spend a lot of time with me at the Academy. I’ll pick him up from school and he’ll do his homework and then do the programs here. The opportunity to spend time with him is priceless.”

Adams is working on developing partnerships with area youth hockey programs as well as with players and coaches from Europe. “We would like to bring players and coaches here in the summer and then reciprocate by sending players and coaches to them.”

Outreach is an important component of the goals of the Academy, and Adams sees plenty of opportunities to make the HarborCenter a premier destination for players and coaches alike. “The chance to do something special and lasting in my hometown would obviously be very rewarding.”

DAVE VAN DRUNEN: ICE IN HIS VEINS

During his 14-year pro career, Dave Van Drunen came to the rescue more than once. He was a solid, steady defenseman whose play made him a valuable addition. He played five seasons in Grand Rapids (1999-2004), plus four more with the Muskegon Fury.

So it seems appropriate that the good-natured defender became a paramedic after he retired from hockey following the 2010-11 season. “I probably would have toughed it out for a couple more years, but the body just didn’t cooperate,” he said.

Van Drunen endured a particularly tough final season. He had his nose and jaw broken during the exhibition season when he was sucker punched in a brawl. It took 18 screws and four plates to repair the damages.

“I came back two months later and played for about a month before I stopped a slapshot similar to those I had blocked a couple of million times in my career,” he said. “Somehow it hit a funny spot and split my kneecap in two.”

The knee never healed properly. “When they pulled out the screws and I started skating, the knee swelled up really bad,” he said. “I had an MRI instead of an X-ray and my knee looked like Pac-Man, so I needed a second surgery and my knee never quite healed like it should have.”

Van Drunen started attending fire school in Odessa, Texas, where he had been captain of the Jackalopes in the Central Hockey League his last three seasons. He attended Odessa College and took six months of basic EMT training, then spent 18 months in the paramedic program.

When his schooling was finished, he returned to Michigan and landed a job with Rockford Ambulance.

“Getting to help people gives you a good feeling,” Van Drunen said. “Knowing that you can go out and do some good for people makes every hour of the long days worth it.”

Working 24-hour shifts and confronting high-pressure situations in the process requires the stamina and mental fortitude that allowed Van Drunen to excel on the ice.

“Obviously the stakes are a lot different, but your body reacts the same way,” he said. “You get that rush of adrenaline, but you have to try to stay calm and in the moment and do what you have to do, then there’s a big sigh of relief when it’s over and you feel exhausted.”

Like changing on the fly in a hockey game, Van Drunen quickly became accustomed to the ups and downs of the work. “Whether it’s two in the morning or two in the afternoon, you go when the calls come,” he said.

“If you’re not busy, you’re either sitting in the ambulance or you’re back at one of the satellite stations trying to catch some sleep. When you’re running 24 hours straight and you get some high stress calls, it can mentally wear on you.”

The life of a paramedic requires responding to everything from toenail fungus to really bad car accidents, according to Van Drunen. “The worst is seeing little kids in bad car accidents. There’s a lot of stuff that you see that you can’t unsee.”

It’s the calls with happy outcomes that make the drudgery worth it. “One of my favorite calls involved a gentleman who actually collapsed in the ambulance on the way to the hospital and died,” he said. “His wife was with us and within a couple of minutes, we were were able to shock him and bring him back.”

Once Van Drunen was assigned to follow a SWAT team making an entrance into a home. “We sat around the corner, waiting in case someone got hurt or shot,” he said. “We never got the call, but that was pretty cool.”

But the sobering calls are the ones that he thinks about, whether it’s fishing a body out of the river or responding to a fatality involving a six-month-old child who had died after falling off a couch while sleeping.

“Usually fatalities involve an older person in bed who passed away in their sleep, but in this instance I walked into the room where this was this little body that was such a blue color, I thought it was a doll,” he said. “Then it hits you, ‘Oh no, that’s not right! To see the parents in their shock and disbelief, it’s pretty tough to deal with.”

Of course, there are moments of levity. Van Drunen jokes that one of his best saves involved a snapper turtle trying to cross a country road. “We pulled the ambulance over and turned on our lights,” he recalled. “We helped it across the road by nudging it.”

All in all, Van Drunen said the work of a paramedic is rather fulfilling. “If you don’t get a good feeling from being able to go out and do something for somebody else that needs help, you don’t want to be a paramedic,” he said.

The schedule is not exactly the best for raising a family. Van Drunen and his wife, Jill, have two children: Connor, 11, and Brooke, 8, so when his old pal and teammate Travis Richards called with an offer to become the rink operations manager of the Southside Ice Arena in Byron Center, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity.

“A bad day at the rink is still a good day,” he said. “I love being at the rink. I’ve always felt that way.”

Van Drunen is still a licensed paramedic and has given thought about working both jobs, but he’s been too busy at the rink to get serious about it. “I had never paid much attention to what it takes to maintain ice, but you just don’t freeze it. A lot goes into it,” he said.